Premature NBL Upgrade

Jeb,

Forget about the NBLs. If you want more bass, start at the source. You'll be surprised what a difference a better CD player or preamp makes. The biggest "lower end" improvements in my system came when I moved from CD 3 to CDS and NAC 102 to NAC 52. I was never too happy with the NAC 102, I felt my system sounded "thin". Ask your dealer if you could try a CDX and/or a NAC 82 for some days at your place. You'll hear it for yourself!

Ciao!

Willem

You'll get far better bass if you upgrade from your 3.5/Flat to a CDX than you would by upgrading from SBL to NBL. In fact, you might even get worse bass from NBLs, because the 180 would be struggling more.

In fact, if you're thinking about NBL upgrade money, then apply that same amount to a CD upgrade. I would suggest you shoot for something like CDX/XPS/82/Hi/180/SBL. That should be a nicely balanced system (although some would suggest you go for CDS2/102/NAPSC/Hi/180).

-=> Mike Hanson <=-

Agree with all the above.

You could spread the cash differently and open up an upgrade to active if you really wish with another 180 plus SNAXO/HiCap. the front end will still be holding things back though.

Personally I would look at CDX/XPS before touching anything else (or CDS2 as mentioned). the SBL's in your system have lots of untapped potential. Bass is not just speaker dependent, CDX and especially the CDX/XPS combo altered mine beyond measure. If a home dem fails to convince then get the dealer to check the SBL set up too.

Bruce

If you're going down the active route the SBLs will sound dramatically better. The NBLs will give you more bass that goes down deeper, but it does need control. For 3x250s + SNAXO + supercap + NBLs sort of money you could go to CDS2/52/135s and a pair of Shahinian ARCs. Your Naim would be sorted and you would have what can be a better speaker than the SBLs. I use SBLs but with a different shape/size room prefer the ARCs. They are very room dependent and you HAVE to demo them where you are going to use them. They can only be run as passive, so the only upgrade after that would be a NAP500!

Thanks for all the input above. Sometimes you just need some counseling to stay the course. I originally bought the SBLs as an end piece to my current upgrade path - taking all the comments into account I'll probably keep them and look to a source upgrade.

Thanks again!

Jeb